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The slow response of Spain compared to the more aggressive aproach of France
07/18/2012
The contrast between Spain's lack of strong and quick action for its banking problems and France's aggressive approach to its debt problem. Spain's problems come from the housing bubble and bad loans in parts of the banking sector especially the cajas savings banks. The lack of strong and early action by bank supervisors at the central bank and the government to cleanup the banks created conditions requiring a bailout. The problems in France which did not experience a housing bubble were the result of slow growth, rising debt and deficits. France took an aggressive approach to tackle these problems, with shared sacrifices, and setting a goal of bringing the deficit down to 3% in 2013 with its 2013 budget.
Linked Articles
France's New Budget Focuses on Cutting Deficit
New York Times 09/28/2012
Spanish Official: Slow Reaction to CrisisWall Street Journal 07/18/2012
How Nokia missed the smartphone market opportunity
07/18/2012
A focus on pure R&D and not building new products hurt Nokia badly.
Linked Articles
Nokia Slips to Seventh in Smartphone Market
Wall Street Journal 11/15/2012
Nokia's Bad Call on SmartphonesWall Street Journal 07/18/2012
The reports of audit and consulting firms on bad loans in Spain's banking system in 2012 and the need for credible estimates to restore confidence
06/20/2012
Linked Articles
For Spain, Accusations of Lagging on Reforms
New York Times 06/20/2012
Spain Tallies the High Cost of Riding Out Bank CrisisNew York Times 06/21/2012
The $436 million payment by Greece to holdout bondholder Dart Management and the $1.5 billion demanded by holdout bondholder Elliott Management leading to Argentine default in 2014
05/15/2012
Greece made the payment to Dart Management at a time of 20% unemployment and daily protests on Athens streets, a month before elections in June 2012. Greece only did this as a last resort for release of EU funds that were being held up to make pament of interest on debt. This exacerabated discontent inside Greece as pensions were being cut and layoffs taking place, including increase in electricity bills. The Syriza party made gains in that election and the two main parties lost ground to other parties, including a violent anti-immigrant party. Argentina's Christina Kirchner faces a difficult time with the unions and centrist parties in Buenos Aires province, with a shortage of cash and sovereign wealth fund down to $29 billion in May 2014. Stevenson points out the payment to Elliott Management could lead to a situation where Argentina owed $15-$27 billion to all holdout and exchange investors in its bonds.
Linked Articles
Argentina Finds Relentless Foe in Paul Singer's Hedge Fund
New York Times 07/30/2014
Bet on Greek Bonds Paid Off for a Vulture FundNew York Times 05/15/2012
How a law from the 1980's requiring use of jute bags for storage creates problems for food storage in India (1)
04/13/2012
Linked Articles
India's Grain Storage Comes Up Short
Wall Street Journal 04/13/2012
Indian Fiber Weaves a CrisisWall Street Journal 06/23/2012
Larger impact on Eurozone countries of oil price increases in 2012
01/06/2012
The decline in the value of the euro increases the impact of higher oil prices in 2012. It also comes at a bad time.
Linked Articles
Fears of a 2008 Repeat for Oil
Wall Street Journal 03/18/2012
Beware Strait Talking on OilWall Street Journal 01/06/2012
Former Fed chairman Volcker on the Volcker Rule and the ban on proprietary trading by banks
10/27/2011
Volcker's letter of comments on the Rule and the interview with Pete Rose. Here he says why this will make financial markets a safer place and why it will lead to healthy financial markets. The financial industry is opposing the Volcker Rule.
Linked Articles
Volcker to Push Back on Banks' Trading
Wall Street Journal 02/13/2012
Charlie Rose Talks to Paul VolckerBusinessWeek 10/27/2011
Reagan-Bush and Obama on immigrants- A Reality Check
09/29/2011
A Better Way. The question of who was more humane in their response is one for the public in a nation of immigrants. Bush and Reagan stood up for the state paying for illegal immigrant children getting schooling in the straightforward honest way to a difficult question in the primary debates years ago. There is no empty rhetoric when Bush says he does not want 6-8 year old children to live in fear and deprived of an education thinking they were living outside the law. And Reagan points out that rather than talk of putting up a fence lets work out our mutual problems with Mexico. The elder Bush goes further and stands up for immigrants in a way that the country has not seen for a long, long time. "They are good, strong people," he says, and "part of my family is Mexican."
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/29/2011
More Deportations Follow Minor Crimes, Records ShowNew York Times 04/06/2014
Mario Cuomo and Andy Cuomo- dissonance and affinity
04/07/2011
Mario Cuomo's speech is cited by Matt Bai where he refers to the concern for helping the poor without crushing the middle class and the tone shifting now to helping the middle class without crushing the poor. As Andy Cuomo goes for another term as governor of New York, voters talk about the elder Cuomo and show acceptance but a lack of enthusiasm for the younger Cuomo.
Linked Articles
A Tepid Thumbs Up Is the Best Many Can Muster for Cuomo
New York Times 11/02/2014
Mario Cuomo, Available for Elder Statesman DutyNew York Times 04/07/2011
The Fall of an American Icon- HP, Lee Apotheker and the Autonomy Acquisition Inc.
02/18/2011
The Autonomy acquisition charge of $8.8 billion announced by CEO Meg Whitman on Nov. 20, 2012, come at a time of declining sales and margins in its printer and PC businesses. The costly charges on bad acquisitions by H-P is likely to hurt investment in R&D for years.
Linked Articles
Hewlett's Loss: A Folly Unfolds By the Numbers
New York Times 11/20/2012
Chief Reboots H-P After ScandalWall Street Journal 02/18/2011
The Volcker Rule banning proprietary trading by banks and recommendations by the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council
01/20/2011
Linked Articles
Charlie Rose Talks to Paul Volcker
BusinessWeek 10/27/2011
Volcker Rule May Work, Even if Rules Are VagueNew York Times 01/20/2011
Arizona's immigration law and the U.S. Supreme Court
07/29/2010
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 04/26/2012
Ruling Is New Hot-Button Issue in Hot SeasonWall Street Journal 07/29/2010
Ed Whitacre and the revival at General Motors- restarting an American icon that had fallen into bad ways
11/13/2009
The management changes and the management style that went into changing General Motors, once an icon of American enterprise in the prewar and early post war period.
Linked Articles
After Bankruptcy, G.M. Struggles to Shed a Legendary Bureaucracy
New York Times 11/13/2009
Ed Whitacre's Battle to Save GM from ItselfBusinessWeek 04/29/2010
Spain macroprudential supervision of its banking system once lauded now turns out to be "timid" and false, could the same be true for China?
07/18/2012
Spain's central bank had a reputation of providing good supervision for Spain's banking system. The problems at the Cajas Savings banks and the current assessment after the request for $125 billion in EU funds for Spain's banks shows how this turned out to be false. Does China face a similiar problem with its housing bubble. The U.S., UK and Spain, failed to control and manage the effects of a housing bubble, can China be a lone exception? Rapid growth enabled China to cope with bad loans in the banking system, with slower growth, a weak European market for exports, and a stimulus that is about one eighth the size in annual investment- one trillion yuan over 4 years in the current stimulus compared to 4 trillion over 2009-2010 in the last stimulus plan. Can China manage this bubble, does it have the experience managing this type of problem or has it papered over the problems as Spain did? This has repercussions for industries and countries from the export sector in Germany, Australia and Brazil to industries such as the German automobile industry, and companies such as Caterpillar.
Linked Articles
As China’s economy slows, real estate bubble looms - The Washington Post
Washington Post 10/03/2012
Spanish Official: Slow Reaction to CrisisWall Street Journal 07/18/2012
Tackling food insecurity in India and Pakistan- use of metal storage containers instead of jute bags or mud silos (2)
06/23/2012
Linked Articles
Hungering for a Solution to Food Losses
Wall Street Journal 12/25/2012
Indian Fiber Weaves a CrisisWall Street Journal 06/23/2012
Span's Cajas Savings bank, problems with managment and culture, lack of financial controls, and the large losses from the real estate bubble
05/24/2012
Bankia was the new name for seven troubled cajas savings banks that were merged. The failure of the government's handling of the bad real estate debt, the collapse of the IPO price for bankia's IPO, and the insovency followed by takeover of Bankia by the government, is what led to the $125 recapitalization request by Spain to the EU. The cajas in Galicia give an insight into the operation of these savings banks, in many cases run by leaders who became influential in the political system and expanded healvily int real estate during the bubble years. Management remained in place for decades with authoritarian leaders and there were no financial controls.
Linked Articles
Clash of Cultures Upends Spain's Cajas
New York Times 08/20/2012
Spain to Recapitalize Bankia in Latest BailoutWall Street Journal 05/24/2012
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the Arizona immigration law
04/26/2012
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 06/26/2012
Justices Weigh Arizona LawWall Street Journal 04/26/2012
Greece's long delayed bond swap with European banks of March 9, 2012
03/09/2012
The bond swap of new bonds with long maturities reflecting a writedown of 53.5% for the old bonds with short maturities was finally achieved on March 9, 2012. By this time Greece's economy was shrinking badly and the new bonds were trading at levels that reflected the need for further writedowns only days after the deal. Prof. Cochrane at the University of Chicago and Prof. John Taylor at Stanford say French and German banks exaggerated the effects of contagion from the beginning to delay writedowns for as long as possible. The effects on the eurozone of the delays in tackling the problem early and decisively are negative or slowing growth and is likely to hurt the banks operating in that environment, raising questions about the wisdom of that strategy.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 03/09/2012
Greece Passes Key Debt TestWall Street Journal 03/09/2012
The huge disparity betwen Mexican American high school dropout rates nationwide and in New York city, and the abysmal college enrolment rate
11/24/2011
Semple cites census data showing about 40% dropout rate for the Mexican American immigrant community in New York city, with no other minority community having more than a 20% dropout rate. The college enrollment rate for the Mexican American immigrant community is cited as ony 6% and cause for alarm considering the large Mexican American immigrant community in New York and and nationwide. This is much worse than the rate for the Mexican American community in the U.S. and for Hispanics in the U.S. as The recent Pew Hispanic Center study shows a 76% high school completion rate and a 46% college enrollment rate for U.S. Hispanics 18-24 years with a high school diploma for 2011.
Linked Articles
Mexicans in New York City Lag in Education
New York Times 11/24/2011
Hispanics' College Enrollment Surges, Report FindsNew York Times 08/20/2012
The Volcker Rule to ban proprietary trading by banks and efforts to dilute its wording and provisions (2)
10/12/2011
Linked Articles
Volcker to Push Back on Banks' Trading
Wall Street Journal 02/13/2012
Volcker Rule Might Just Be Kabuki TheaterWall Street Journal 10/12/2011
The Volcker Rule to ban proprietary trading by banks and the efforts to dilute its wording and provisions (1)
09/22/2011
Linked Articles
Volcker to Push Back on Banks' Trading
Wall Street Journal 02/13/2012
Volcker Rule May Lose Its BiteWall Street Journal 09/22/2011
The remarkable composition and growth of the largest immigrant filled city in the world- New York City
03/25/2011
With 47% of the employed population being immigrants, the presence of immigrants has shaped the city and contributed to its economic vitality. Without immigrants the population would be declining as happened in a prior decade, and economic vitality would be affected. Many of the immigrants are from Mexico, China, India and the Caribbean.
Linked Articles
Immigration Remakes and Sustains New York, Report Finds
New York Times 12/18/2013
Blacks Leave City as Asians Propel GrowthWall Street Journal 03/25/2011
Angela Merkel's experience with the reunification of East and West Germany and her views of the eurozone crisis
01/30/2011
The perceptions of the eurozone crisis of ordinary Germans and of former East German Angela Merkel are colored by the period of reunification of the two Germany's. This was paid for with a"solidarity surcharge" tax paid by Germans amounting to $1.7 trillion and led in its early stages to 4 million unemployed in the eastern part and 20% unemployment. It took over a decade for East Germany to build new modernized industries in the larger cities of the east, but still leaves the rural parts of former East Germany in a neglected state as young peoplemoved out. During this period industry in the west also regained lost global competitiveness, especially in industries such as automobiles and advanced machinery, using wage restraint agreements with unions and increases in productivity. Germans see the need for eurozone countries in the southern part of Europe needing to make similiar sacrifices and see the tax evasion in Italy and Greece as unacceptable. The real estate bubble, the lack of transparency for banks bad loans, and out of control regional spending in Spain is also seen in a similiar light. Greece is seen as the most egregious offendor because of the bad financial accounting that grossly understated the extent of the bad loans. Less publicized in Germany is the role played in the bad loans through poor lending practices of German and French banks and that as experts have pointed out Germany was to some extent bailing out German banks when it was bailing out Greece- till German banks reduced their exposure to Greece in 2011.
Linked Articles
In former East Germany, anxious residents resent paying for Europe’s problems - The Washington Post
Washington Post 06/21/2012
Merkel's Defense of Euro Forged in East GermanyNew York Times 01/30/2011
The Volcker Rule banning proprietary trading by banks and its implementation
10/28/2010
Linked Articles
Volcker to Push Back on Banks' Trading
Wall Street Journal 02/13/2012
Volcker on His 'Rule'— Keep It BroadWall Street Journal 10/28/2010
Arizona's immigration law and Mexican-Americans in the U.S.
07/19/2010
Linked Articles
New York Times 07/19/2010
Arizona Orders Tucson to End Mexican-American Studies ProgramNew York Times 01/07/2011
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